State-of-the-art soccer scouting revolves around the shrewd use of massive databases, of interactive stats and video clips.

The appliance of science gives scouts the chance to watch almost any player in the world in action. In detail. In slow motion. Time and again.

And with an accompanying detailed breakdown of every pass, every tackle, every yard covered in that game. Or any other game the target has played over the last season or two.

It is all a far cry from watching from the stands with a Bovril and a notebook and walking away disappointed after writing “nothing special” because the future superstar you are watching has a stinker that day, or is played out of position or is carrying an injury.

It was an eye-opener - not least because Boro’s transfer targets were all listed position by position on whiteboards on all four walls, the kind of raw data that would make the Teesside cyberspace explode.

I was sworn to secrecy. We struggled to find an angle for a photo that wouldn’t compromise the club and send the rumour mill into meltdown.

And they are all highly skilled at harnessing information technology to harvest information to suit Boro’s needs, either to scout potential transfer targets or to prepare detailed tactical reports on coming opponents.

“You’re basically sat around all day playing Football Manager and watching targets on YouTube aren’t you?” I asked to polite laughter.

Then they opened their box of tricks, a system that makes Football Manager look like early eight-bit SensiSoccer video games.

Wyscout is a subscription-based, fully searchable, minutely detailed database that covers every minute of every game in every major league in the world.

'Keen on the German market'

The system was devised by an Italian software company and was initially aimed at providing live statistics for sports broadcasters a little bit more detailed than the usual simplistic shots, assists and possession counts.

But it quickly grew and started to work for Serie A teams, then developed bespoke systems to allow tailored breakdowns of player stats linked to video footage of every single action he was involved in during a match. From there it exploded.

Now Wyscout’s database covers 273,000 players from 30,000 teams playing in 150 divisions in 80 countries.

Its army of analysts in Chiavari, Italy, edit footage of games dozens of times to isolate every touch by every individual player and its data specialists organise and package the clips into a user-friendly searchable library.

Its vast interactive archive currently holds over 124,000 matches and they add 1,000 new ones every week.

Gent opened Wyscout on a giant screen in the office and showed me how it worked.

“We can pick any league, any team, any player and watch every touch they have,” he explained.

We clicked on Germany - “a market we are keen on and are starting to look at because their intensity is similar to here” chipped in Gill - clicked on Bayern Munich and picked a random player: Left-back David Alaba... not a name on the target lists, I hasten to add.

“There are drop down dialogue boxes,” he continued. “And you can select any action - tackles, headers, passes short or long or diagional, crosses to the near post, far post, whipped, driven, floated, shots, whatever - and click and every single example of that action in the game plays on video.”

David Alaba (not a target!) celebrates with Franck Ribery (Image: PA)

It does, and the lad Alaba is not a bad player.

The footage is backed by a battery of stats on passing distance, direction and completion ratios and can be compared against other games and other players.

“It is an incredible tool for us,” said Gill. “It means you can get an in-depth overview of a player before you even consider going to watch them live.

“Wyscout is really good because you can go to watch one team’s defender say and you may be impressed by the other team’s wide player who you have never heard of and when you come back you can check him out in far more detail.

“It means you quickly build up quite a big data-base on players that is stats based and visual and you can form an opinion with confidence.

“And it gives us a far greater reach. We can ‘watch’ players in leagues where we don’t really have a great knowledge yet.

“And when we get a recommendation we can have a quick look before we decide whether to take it any further. It helps eliminate players as well as find targets.”

'Spotted on FIFA'

And it is very specific. And searchable. The scouts can quickly draw up a list of left-sided midfielders with high crossing success ratios, under a certain age and with a year left on their contract. It’s footy geek gold dust.

It’s like a giant turbo-powered Football Manager. With the option of buying the players for real.

“It’s funny you say that because there is a generation of youngsters who play FIFA and Football Manager who throw up a lot of names,” he said.

“I play FIFA with my son and I have to laugh when we are picking teams from minor leagues and including players who I have actually watched but even at nine-years-old he has an understanding of some very obscure players.

“Those games have big databases and a lot of the stats in there are fairly accurate and give a decent indication of a player’s skills and attributes.

“We do actually get emails from people who have ‘spotted’ a player on those games.

“Some of these people have incredible knowledge of players from obscure leagues and we do read those emails and sometimes we even check these players out.

“You never know, they may just tell us something we don’t know. It doesn’t take long for us to run them through the system and although none of them have gone on to be targets it all adds to the information we have.”

The key to Boro’s scouting is making the stats work for them in building up a detailed profile of a prospective signing.

New Brentford head coach Marinus Dijkhuizen

But the stats are only part of the picture. It is how they are interpreted and how they help Boro make smarter decisions that matter, both on transfer targets and matchday tactics for specific opposition.

“We are not driven completely by raw stats in the way some clubs are, like Brentford are,” said Gill. “But clearly that information can be very useful.

“The better and fuller the information we have, the better the decision we can make as a club.

“Basic stats is where we are at the moment. When we look at a player we ask how often do they play, how many times do they finish games, if they are strikers how many goals, how many assists, how many goals per minute.

“That can give you an obvious indication of what a player is like but we use our systems to go beyond that to pinpoint specific parts of the skill set.

“How good is a centre-back with the ball? We can watch every single touch he will have in a game to see how good he is in possession. How many headers does he win and where does he put the ball? How many tackles does he make? How many does he win? In what areas? Did he need to make them?

“Once you get beyond raw data you have to look specifically at the skill-set you need for the role you are looking to fill.”

Gary Gill in conversation with Anthony Vickers (Image: Katie Lunn)

Gill was quick to praise his team. They may have what many fans would regard as the dream job but put in long hours preparing reports in meticulous detail and sometimes at short notice and who are under pressure.

“We have some brilliant guys doing a fantastic job here,” said Gill. “Our systems are a tool but you need the resources of skilled people and a lot of man hours to analyse masses of data and footage and to distill and collate all the information and present it in a user-friendly way.

“That’s not easy. You have to break down the stats from not just one games but lots of games over whole seasons and make sense of it.

“And you have to be absolutely accurate because some big decisions might rest on it.

“With opposition scouting, which we handle too, the gaffer is very, very tight on it. He asks for incredible amount of detail on players, tactics, set plays, exactly what to expect and he prepares his game plan on the basis of that so you have to get it right. That’s a big pressure, believe me.

“But that is a reflection of the entire ethos that runs through the club.

“Everyone works hard and there is incredible attention to detail.

“Aitor is absolutely red hot on that. Preparations are meticulous at every level of the club.

“There is an environment of excellence and constant improvement and that applies in this room just as much as it does on the training ground and the pitch.”

'Premier League drives us'

Gill knows that ultimately he will be judged on results, and that means helping Boro find the best possible players.

“There is a big investment here,” he said. “Not just in the technology but the manpower too.

“The recruitment department is well staffed with loyal people who are great at their jobs.

“And that costs the club. I don’t want to put a figure on it but we have people in the office, out at matches on the ground, there’s the cost of going to games, the day-to-day things.

“There has been a substantial investment by the club, by Steve Gibson, over the last four years and it is down to us to make sure we pay for ourselves.

“And to do that we have to the club find footballers for the first team, the right players to get us into the Premier League - and that is what drives all of us.”